via CNN with some corrections made.

KURTZ: Well, it's one of the questions we need to chronicle. When you look back, Amy Holmes, at Obama over the last year -- he had a tough year; no question about it, the successes since the shellacking aside. Did the media kind of turn on him as his poll numbers sunk, and the coverage got more negative?

HOLMES: Indeed they did. And actually listening to this conversation I was thinking one of the big pieces of this is how the media follows the polls. And if the president is up, his coverage tends to be more positive. If the president's numbers are down, then the president -- or sorry, the press becomes a lot more aggressive in asking him to explain himself.

Also, Barrack Obama's year was such a mixed bag. He had huge legislative successes. He did pass "Obama-care" after all, even thought it was on a purely partisan basis. But we also saw "Obama- care's" sinking in popularity, and of course the shellacking at the mid-term.

But when you went through that -- that preview -- or sorry, intro of back and forth and back and forth, it was like watching a tennis game. And so much of it was it seems the press's herd mentality in following one story sort of lurching from week to week. And now their back in love.

KURTZ: But on these legislative victories, Thomas -- Thomas Frank, and I don't know if they were back in love, but certainly president getting better press in the last few weeks as he has piled up some victories in this lame duck session.

But the passage of health care, the passage of financial reform, it always seemed to me that when it finally happened, it became a one day story, and the press didn't really give the president credit for what he had accomplished, whether you happen to agree with those proposals or not.

FRANK: Whether they gave him credit or not? Look, I'm one of the -- I guess I would be one of the people that turned on Obama pretty early; although that's a harsh way to put it. I mean, I -- I had a lot of, you know, hope.

I had a lot of hope for the guy way back when. And he has been a sort of -- an off and on disappointment to me, you know, speaking as the -- as the sort of the -- the big liberal at the table. He has been a big disappointment for me over the over the course of the last couple of years.

And, you know, but none of this has been a surprise.

KURTZ: But even if he's been a big disappointment, but to talk about the way you would write about him, or the way your -- your friends on the left would write about him. Big disappointment who nevertheless got a lot of stuff done that liberals like.

FRANK: That's true and look what he just did the other day. I mean, it's a great accomplishment. He did get something done with health care. I mean, it was -- it was the constant selling out earlier in the process, remember, of negotiating with the Rs, and then the Rs walked away from the table.

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ASHBURN: ... White House communications. I've said this in the past on this show, is that he had these wonderful legislative victories for the liberals. And yet the White House doesn't say, hey, look, hey, look what we did. And it gets lost.

ROBERTS: Well, this is a very odd conversation to be having. That somehow he has disappointed the liberals when the conventional wisdom around Washington for years has been that the press is all liberal and they're too -- and they coddle Democrats.

The truth is that what the press does is they are always in favor of a good story, and against who is ever in power. That's the way news rooms work in this city. And it worked against Obama -- for Obama when he was a candidate. It worked against him once he became president.

KURTZ: Well, it certainly wasn't the case...

(CROSSTALK)

ASHBURN: ... about redemption. We're also about redemption...

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KURTZ: It certainly wasn't the case in the opening months of his administration.